Monday Morning Blues
by Todd's Pet
Summary: Just a little ditty I wrote during my lunch break after Todd and Steve helped me get through a bad Monday morning at the office! A bit of fun one-shot!


Monday Morning blues

Babs walks back despondently from the vending machine, holding her cardboard cup of hot espresso carefully by her fingertips. Another Monday morning after a weekend with no heroic space adventures and no lottery win.

The rich aroma of the coffee wafts up toward her nose, making her motor neurons fire up in recognition that this must be a work morning and she needs to wake up. Two more coffees and she may be just about fully conscious.

She sits in front of her computer and switches it on. It flickers for a moment and then a soulful face stares out at her. It's recognisably male but not quite human: his skin is shiny, a pale greenish-grey with visible veins, prominent brow ridges sweep down into a broad nose, flanked on both sides by viper pits that sit below bright, golden-yellow reptile eyes, one of which is ringed by a jagged black tattoo, almost star-shaped. His chin sports a single tuft of white-haired goatee beard and he's topped with a waterfall of soft but bedraggled pure white hair, cascading over the shoulders of his high-necked, black leather, military style coat.

She plonks her coffee cup on the desk in front of her and speaks to the face on the screen. "Well, Todd, another week in the fun factory." She sighs. "When are you going to come and take me away from all this, then?"

She almost tips the entire contents of her cup over her keyboard when she hears a deep male voice from behind her say, "He never will, you know. You should stick with me, Baby."

Babs turns to look, confirming what she already knew that no one is there. As she does so, several keys on her keyboard tap away all by themselves and suddenly the picture on her screen changes.

This face is similar to Todd's, but has no tattoo or prominent veins. His goatee is much longer and split into two parts that are braided and his hair is longer and brushed smooth and shiny.

"Steve?" she says to the screen. "Did you do that?"

She looks around again glad that she's always the first one in the office and no one can see her talking to her computer screen.

"Of course!" Steve's voice replies but still she can see nothing. "You don't really want to sit and look at him all day when you can look at me instead, do you?"

She shakes her head vigorously and downs her espresso in one. Too many glasses of wine last night, she tells herself. She's just about to start clicking her mouse when her keyboard starts typing by itself again and the first face pops back up on her screen.

Another male voice, deeper and gravellier than the first, speaks over her other shoulder, "When is he going to get it? You're mine, he only has you on indefinite loan."

"Now hang on a minute," Babs retorts. "I don't 'belong' to anyone!"

"Yes you do, Snuggle Bunny," Todd's voice whispers seductively in her ear, "You know you do, so you might as well just accept it."

She feels the blush start from her chest and sweep up her face in a single wave that she cannot halt.

"See? You know you're mine," Todd's voice speaks again, soft and low and making her toes curl. "Do you know how sweet your feeding spot looks when it's all flushed like that?" She instinctively pulls her shirt together and fastens two more buttons. "Spoil sport," Todd says.

"Suck'n'puke, that's all he ever thinks about!"

"I thought you'd gone off for a nice quiet sulk in a dark corner somewhere?"

"I do not sulk."

"Yes you do."

"Do not!"

"Do so!"

Babs holds her hands up and rolls her eyes. "Boys, boys! No fighting, please! It's too early in the morning."

She waits and after several minutes' silence she decides they've either gone away or they're both sulking now, so she opens her project documents and starts to get on with her work.

After an hour or so of peace and quiet a rubber band suddenly flies out of nowhere and lands on her keyboard in front of her. She looks up. Oh lord, she thinks, now I can see them! Todd is sitting atop the filing cabinet, grinning like a Cheshire cat and pinging rubber bands at her. She scowls at him and he gives her an exaggerated pout that makes him look so comical she almost laughs out loud. She quickly and surreptitiously checks her desk neighbour from the corner of her eye and is relieved to see she hasn't noticed.

Todd hops down from the filing cabinet and saunters across the office to where – good grief, he wasn't there before! – Steve is standing over one of her most hated colleagues, Maggie. He's pulling evil vampire faces and looming menacingly over her, feeding hand poised in mid air about six inches above her chest.

Babs shakes her head vigorously and Todd nudges Steve in the ribs. They both turn and look at her, pulling comical pleading expressions, but she shakes her head again. They walk away from her colleague, but not before Steve tips the glass of water sitting on the desk, spilling it all over Maggie's keyboard and lap.

Babs can't stifle a snort of laughter that earns her a glare from Maggie as she hurries to the ladies to mop her skirt.

The two wraith amble back to Babs's desk where Steve leans in close to her face and purrs in his most seductive voice, "Please let me feed on one of them, Baby, just one..." While she is completely unable to tear her eyes from his he walks his fingers across her desk and taps two keys on her keyboard, instantly changing her screensaver from Todd to Steve. Todd growls and changes it back again; Steve hisses and changes it again...

"Oh for goodness sake!" Babs says impatiently, sweeping their hands off her keyboard.

"Computer problems again?" her desk neighbour enquires. Babs gives a small, sheepish laugh, and changes the display to a customised wallpaper with both Todd and Steve. "Happy now?" her neighbour asks.

"Indeed we are!" Todd and Steve laugh in unison.

Maggie returns to her desk and within ten minutes she's striding across the office. With obvious pleasure she tosses the page print-outs in front of Babs, saying, "These are littered with mistakes, you'll have to do them again – and pay attention this time!"

Babs's face is immediately aflame with embarrassment, but Maggie struts off before she has a chance to defend herself. Steve makes to fly after her but Todd grabs his arm and holds him back.

"I'll deal with her," Todd says in a way that makes it clear he's used to giving orders and having them carried out. "You comfort our baby, you're better at that."

Steve hisses after Maggie but settles down in the empty chair next to Babs and immediately starts stroking her hair, purring and murmuring softly in her ear.

He's doing such a good job that she's completely relaxed again within minutes and she gets through the corrections in no time – even though the mistakes were someone else's. As soon as she's done she looks up – and sees Todd's hand firmly attached to Maggie's chest!

Babs almost stands up to rush over and stop him, but Steve pushes her back down in her seat again and resumes his purring and stroking. When Babs sees that Maggie is not actually turning into a dried up corpse she relaxes and reminds herself that her wraithie boys are just a figment of her over-active imagination.

The rest of the morning passes uneventfully until Maggie gets up from her desk looking decidedly peeky. She sways slightly as she weaves across the floor toward the boss's desk and slumps down in the chair next to the Editor.

"Are you alright, Maggie?" the Editor asks.

"I think I'm going to have to go home, actually," she says weakly. "I'm really not feeling well at all... I feel so weak, just completely drained..."

Babs glares at Todd and Steve questioningly. They both shrug, roll their eyes and whistle innocently.

As Maggie slinks off quietly Babs looks up at the clock. One o'clock already. She can't believe the morning went by so fast.

"Lunch time!" Steve chimes happily.

"I'll get her coffee," Todd volunteers, "You get the sandwich."

"Okie dokie," Steve agrees, "Ham or cheese, Babe?"

"Cheese please," Babs says, significantly cheered up. What about you boys?"

Todd grins wickedly and Steve laughs, "Well, he's already had lunch and once I've got you settled with your lunch, hon, I'll leave him to look after you while I head off down to the basement for mine!"

"You'll like it down there, bro," Todd tells Steve, "It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet and nobody seems to notice the odd engineer or two going missing!"

She smiles as she watches them wander off, high-fiving each other, and wonders how she ever managed to get through Monday mornings without them.

THE END


End file.
